Sunday, June 29, 2008

Many thanks Don for sending them along. I'm sure there are others out there that we would all love to see. Actually, now that I am looking at this more closely, photo #5 below clearly shows Debbie Devoe snapping a picture. Debbie, send us some photos!

So many of you remember Carolyn "Spike" Kempker for her outstanding volleyball skills at Northgate. In fact, she is the only member of the class of '86 to be inducted to the Bronco Sports Hall of Fame. She apparently went to Cal Berkeley (see next post) and continued playing. As of 2007, she is ranked #6 and #7 all time on their list of Total Blocks in a season. If anyone has her email, please forward it along.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

OK I think that's all of them. Thanks to our anonymous commenters, I think we have correctly identified everyone. Please let me know in email or comments if there are mistakes, or if I need to change your name, or if you would like to add the name of your guests, etc. Also, if anyone has other candid photos from the event, please send them along, as I'm sure there are some folks who were present (Trief?) who are not shown here.

Finally, there are many people who were at the reunion who have not yet written in with updates, so if you are in contact with these folks, please encourage them to send us some news.

OK I'm going to post the reunion photos. Consider this an advertisement in case you want to order official copies! I might need some help with the ID's, so chime in the comments if I'm wrong or if I can't figure it out.

I have really enjoyed reading about what everyone has been doing since they graduated from Northgate. Jeff, thanks so much for putting this together. It was a great idea.

After I graduated from Northgate, I went to UC Davis and majored in Psychology. After graduating from Davis, I moved down to San Diego and got my masters in Clinical Psychology at San Diego State and then received my Ph.D. in Educational Psychology with a focus on technology from Arizona State University. I met my husband, Chris, while we were both working on our doctorates. He received his doctorate in Electrical Engineering. We got married in March of 2001. After graduating from Arizona State, I worked at a company called KnowledgePlanet in Emeryville. It was a high tech dotcom company examining the impact technology had on learning. After the money ran out at that company, I worked as an educational researcher at a charter school in Apple Valley, CA. Apple Valley is a small desert community east of San Bernardino. While living there, I had my first son, Coby. Coby is now 5 years old. After a few years in Apple Valley, Chris and I decided we wanted to move back to the bay area. We moved to Menlo Park (which is where we currently live) and had our second son, Adrian. Adrian is now 2 years old. When we moved back to the bay area, I got a job as a Research Associate at the Lawrence Hall of Science museum at UC Berkeley. I currently evaluate K-12 science curriculum and spend a fair amount of time visiting schools around the bay area. I enjoy hiking, swimming, traveling, going to movies, trying new restaurants, bowling, and spending time with my husband and 2 little guys.

Do any of you remember when I won a car our freshman year? It was an old 1970’s station wagon, which was donated to the school. My parents drove me around the block in this old car. I remember several juniors and seniors offering to buy the car from me. It was thrilling to win a car especially when I couldn’t drive yet, but my parents thought it was in such bad shape that they donated back to the school ☺

OK he's technically not in our class, but many of us were classmates with him in Sr. Martinez's spanish class. Neil is now on the faculty at the University of British Columbia, which is not in Britain, nor Colombia, but in Vancouver, Canada:

The History Department welcomes new faculty member Neil Safier, who will arrive on campus in January 2008. Assistant Professor Safier received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 2004 and his dissertation title is “Writing the Andes, Reading the Amazon: Voyages of Exploration and the Itineraries of Scientific Knowledge in the Eighteenth Century.” Currently, Safier holds an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Humanities, Penn Humanities Forum, University of Pennsylvania. His research coalesces around three interrelated topics: geography and exploration, historical investigations into nature and the natural world, and imperial contact and exchange. By taking an anthropological approach to the study of travel and cultural encounter, Safier emphasizes the social and material practices that he believes are central to understanding how knowledge circulates within communities as well as between continents. Safier considers himself fundamentally a scholar of European history, but his work also emphasizes the cultural and geographical connections between Europe and the non-European world.

Dr. Safier's book, Measuring the New World: Enlightenment Science and South America is published by Chicago University Press and will be available in 2008.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Here's the car story: Jeff assures me that the statute of limitations has passed, so I guess it's time to come clean and confess about the car left inside Northgate on the last day of school. I suppose this means I can never run for public office or this will get dug up as dirt! Fortunately I have no such ambitions so I'll admit it - I'm partially responsible, although credit (or shame) goes to the other others pictured in the attached photo. I'll leave it a mystery as to who the true mastermind was, although it wasn't me :)

The story begins in 1985 when I bought the book "The Complete Guide to Lockpicking." Much to our surprise it was really easy to pick quite a few locks using just a filed down hacksaw blade and a smashed bicycle spoke. The power to enter locked buildings was too much for mischievous 16 and 17 year-olds to resist, so it wasn't long before we were picking the locks at school late on weekend nights and sneaking around to areas normally forbidden to kids. While it doesn't condone our actions, at least we weren't destructive or malicious - aside from the illicit entry (and moving the car), I think the worst thing we did was to raid a few snacks from the cafeteria. In retrospect it didn't make much sense - after spending all day in school why sneak BACK into school on our WEEKENDS and risk getting thrown into JAIL for some frozen burritos and cherry turnovers? Oh yeah, the indiscretion of youth.

With the end of our senior year approaching we bandied about ideas on what to do as a senior prank. We had some crazy ones, like herding cows from Shell Ridge into the school or inflating thousands of balloons. Somehow we ended up on the idea of moving one of the cars from the fenced yard on the east side of the school used for auto shop to the area in front of the library.

Around 2 AM on the last day of school we opened up the fence and pushed the car out of the yard and up the dirt hill parallel to Castle Rock Road. We headed toward the double doors by the science classrooms, as that was the closest door wide enough to fit the car. The pushing was a lot of work, as the car didn't have inflated wheels, but after some effort we made it. We had people acting as lookouts to signal in case anyone was coming. A car drove up the road, and we hid, but the car just kept on driving. It was all a pretty well-coordinated operation! Once we got inside the rest was easy. The only minor hurdles were removing some of the door posts and schooching around a tight corner. Someone found a "No Parking" sign and that completed the prank!

The real drama, at least for me, came earlier that night. The doors had a little button that popped out when the doors opened, just like the button inside a refrigerator door that automatically turn on the light. We surmised that the button might trigger a silent alarm and decided to disable it by unscrewing the button and disconnecting the wire. Since this would trigger the alarm for a brief moment, we decided to do it earlier that night near the end of the school dance. Ideally we would have disabled the button earlier, but we didn't realize the car wouldn't fit through the door we initially selected until the afternoon before the last day of class. It would only take a few minutes to disconnect the wire and even if security came to check it out we would be long gone by the time they got there.

It sounded good, but what happened instead is a police car appeared and interrupted our little button operation by shining a spotlight on me! Scared witless, I bolted toward the front of the school. My accomplice escaped inside the school (I don't think the police ever saw him) while the police car followed me. I ended up running into Cancer Cove and managed to unlock one of the doors and escape inside the school in the nick of time, just as the police car was driving into the alley. I'm not sure if they saw me go in, but I did see them shine their flashlights around and shake the locked doors. WHEW, that was a close one. The adrenaline was really going amidst thoughts of taking a ride in the back of the police car. It served as a good deterrent though - since then, the lock picking tools only get used when I lock myself out of a door or cabinet.

Here's a grainy picture taken of the instigators, from left to right: Lesley Chiu, Kerry O'Boyle, Gary Voerge, Kenrick Mock, Brian Hazen, Torsten Kimura, Mike Noh. I think Bob Arthur might have taken the picture? I'm pretty sure there was someone else there too but my memory is a little hazy. Maybe they will volunteer to comment!

Since 2007 Nerissa has been a news anchor on a Fox television station, WVTV, in Tampa, Florida, after six years at WFLA. Here's a video of her introducing herself.

Undergraduate degree in Radio/TV at Cal State Long Beach, Master's degree from Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Worked in Sarasota and Allentown before Tampa. She has FOUR daughters, including a new one, Ava, born on May 7!. Congratulations Nerissa!

Gary, who now goes by Garrett, is a police officer in Concord. He's on the right in this photo. That would make two NG alums in the Concord PD if the Giacobazzi rumor is confirmed. In 2007 Garrett was promoted to Lieutenant. I found this article from 2001, apparently he was on a TV show: "If "Street Smart" has a star, it's the affable Voerge, who looks a bit like Garth Brooks with more hair and less heft."

Here's an excerpt:

For those of you who don't live in Concord or those of you in Concord who don't find your way at 7 p.m. Thursdays to channels 24 or 25 or 29, depending on your cable provider, "Street Smart" is a slice of reality TV that delivers just the facts, ma'am. No car chases, no fuzzed-out faces, just Norris and Voerge sitting on a makeshift set in front of the dais in the council chambers, the only room at Concord City Hall wired for live television.

The show -- which this week helped Concord win a statewide award for community policing efforts -- debuted in 1999 and is produced twice each month, mostly by volunteers within the Police Department. It is part viewer call-in, part community bulletin board, part safety tips and part crime blotter. The result? An oddly watchable mix that draws viewers from all facets of the community.

"One night, I stopped a known drug dealer I was following. Lights swirling, everything," recalls Voerge, 33, a six-year veteran of the force. "I approach the car, and I hear from the backseat, 'Hey! It's Garrett!' . . . I'm putting on the cuffs, and they're telling me about the show. I realized later that sure, they're crooks, but they're citizens, too."

If "Street Smart" has a star, it's the affable Voerge, who looks a bit like Garth Brooks with more hair and less heft. An investigator of financial crimes except on Thursday nights, he's the one who tends to dominate the interviews, or riff on the scripts, that give the show a bare structure.

"Garrett drives the TelePrompTer guy crazy because he'll ad-lib all the time," says David Chilimidos, a former homicide inspector who produces the show on an annual budget of $30,000. "And in the interviews, he's very smooth."

I toured the great state of California dabbling at college throughout the late 80's and early 90's at august institutions such as San Diego State, Cuesta JC, Chico State and Butte College, more or less in that order.

Graduated from Chico in '92 with a degree in Philosophy and an EMT-P from Butte College. I worked as a medic in Chico, Oakland (crazy) and finally at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, where I shared a small house in the hills with one Mr. Thomas Camp, his girlfriend of the time and a pot bellied pig named Zoe (the pig was oft rumored to be my girlfriend, but I swear I never touched her). It was at the ripe age of 27 I decided it was time to think about growing up and try to make a living that supported more than my rent, outrigger canoe club dues and cheap beer habit.

I got a sales gig at a Silicon Valley company called NetManage and have been in hooked ever since. The last 9 years I have been in the CDN (Content Delivery Network) space and currently run Western US sales for a company called BitGravity. Among other sites we stream Revision3 and the Tom Green Show live, 24/7 from his living room, www.tomgreen.com.

I will have been married 9 years this August to my beautiful wife DeeDee (Acalanes Class of '88) and we have three daughters; Chloe 6, Audrey 4 and Sadie 9 months. We live in Healdsburg, a small town in Sonoma wine country and love it! Any/all of you who ever find yourselves up our way please let us know!

Jon "Bean" Hastings wrote in today. I told him that I remembered him in 5th Grade drawing Dr. Seuss sketches in class, and that he always knew what he wanted to do. He responded "Oddly, and through a bizarre series of lucky breaks, fortunate contacts, stick-to-itiveness and the plain old inability to realize that it couldn't be done, it does seem that way."

-Received his degree in art from U.C. Santa Cruz, making him a Fighting Banana Slug who's actually doing what he studied in college.

-Professional cartoonist, illustrator and graphic designer for fifteen years.

-Wrote and illustrated the children's book "Terrabella Smoot and the Unsung Monsters."

-Was on the board of directors for the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco. (CartoonArt.org)

-Edited two benefit books for the Cartoon Art Museum, "Spark Generators," which featured nearly 50 cartoonist's stories about their influences. Contributors included: Will "The Spirit" Eisner, Lynn "For Better or For Worse" Johnston, Bill "The Simpsons" Morrison, Trina "The Great Women Superheroes" Robinson, Jeff "Bone" Smith, Micheal "The Norm" Jantze and Tony "Maakies" Millionaire, among others.

-Most recent work can be found in Slave Labor Graphic's "Haunted Mansion" comic based on the classic Disneyland attraction. (A huge honor, since he is a huge fan of Disneyland. even asking his wife to marry him on the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction.)

-Has lived in Corralitos for over ten years with his lovely wife Terry and a lot of animals. When he's not scribbling away, he likes to watch B-movies, visit tourist traps and read comic books.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Hello All.I went to SFSU after graduating from NGHS. In 1995 I got a job at The Pacific Exchange on the stock options floor. I became an options market maker in 1998. I met my wife in 2000, marrying her in 2002. The option floor went electronic, putting most of the market makers out of business. I thought I would never move back to the other side of the tunnel, but in 2004 I got a job trading for a hedge fund in Walnut Creek. My wife, Erin, and I now live in Moraga and had our first child, Liam, born in April of this year. Nancy Choi got married and moved from SF to Berkeley where she has a couple of kids. Scott Muncer joined the Navy and moved to Florida; now he lives in Australia. From the soccer picture you have on the blog, Eric Smith is now Eric McIntyre and lives in Lafayette, he was a grade behind us. I saw Beth Schutz and Paul Machi at the Van Halen concert in Oakland in December. Thanks for making the blog.

I think we should start a list of mysteries that could potentially be solved. NGHS Mythbusters: Three that I can think of:

1) What was the deal with the rapellers off of the roof. I think Chris B. and John E. were involved. This was to hold a sign in front of the building. Rumor was that one of them actually had a gear failure (or operator error) and fell from the roof all the way to the concrete but was uninjured. True, False, or Exaggerated?

2) Who masterminded rolling a car into the building on the last day of our senior year? I remember Principal Hansen strolling around asking us if we knew anything...

3) Why is there a photo of guys dressed up as Chippendale's dancers in the yearbook? I know Chris B.(again), Matt C., a few others were in that pic. What is the deal?

If you have other mysteries, or can clear up any of the ones listed, let me know in comments or email...

Friday, June 20, 2008

Sarah Fanoe-Kaye earned a BA in Dance from San Diego State University in 1990. She has been a member of the Robert Henry Johnson, Della Davidson and McCaleb dance companies in California and has worked with choreographers Joe Goode, Mary Reich and Pat Sandback. In 2005, she was selected Dance Alumna of the Year by SDSU's School of Music and Dance. She has taught Intro to Dance and is currently a guest choreographer and teacher in Envision Dance Conservatory at Canyon Crest Academy, a high school in San Diego.

What can say....that Senior Trip to Hawaii was where my life began!! On that infamous trip, I met my husband who then was in the Navy and almost 22 years later I am stilled married living in Antioch with 5 amazing children. I am what you call the "stay at home mom" and trust me it keeps me completely busy at all times!

We have a daughter Ashlee who is almost 19 and just graduated from Cosmetology school last month. She was able to go to London learn what she calls the new age updated styles. I have decided that the US must never try these styles anytime soon! What a culture shock! Our son Daniel is 18 and just graduated last Friday from DVHS. He is going to school in the fall to one day become a firefighter. I am so proud! Next is Eric he is 15 and a Sophomore at DVHS. This one keeps me busy the most. He is very involved in Football and Baseball and is still playing both sports as of right now. Just got back from football camp in Reno and will be starting practice on an All-Star Babe Ruth team later today. We are a very sports orientated family and I love it! Finally... my next two, Mathieu 9 and Kaylee 6. These two are our very special gift from above....Mathieu and Kaylee are adopted. After doing Foster Care nine years ago we received a call about a baby boy in need of a home. Went to Alta Bates a whole 5 minutes after the call and brought our special boy home. Mathieu is on the Autism Spectrum and was very drug exposed at birth which contributes to a very needy but extremely special boy. Three years ago we were shocked to find Mathieu had a sister. Kaylee is a handful and has some special needs .... they say!! We are still learning what Kaylee's world is all about. As you all can see....my children are my life and I would not change anything that has come my way in the past 22 years since Northgate High School!

I am so excited that there is finally a way to connect to everyone. Thank you so much Jeff for putting this all together!

Here’s a picture of my two of my greatest accomplishments – of course since graduating Northgate! Here I am with my family and my brother and sister in law-- hiking in Yosemite Valley last weekend. My husband and I live in the Fresno with our two rugrats- Spencer (8) and Ellen (6). Dave teaches 5th grade and I am in recruiting—I have a great time playing a professional match-maker. Dave has the patience of a saint with our growing family and we can be found at the usual suburban haunts on the weekends- the soccer field, the dance studio, and the kids’ gym. We also seem to spend an inordinate amount of time at Target.

We try to get back to Cal Poly once a year to visit the old [college] stomping grounds. Dave loves heading to Yosemite or running, I prefer hanging out at the beach or taking a nice nap. The kids seem to be happiest digging holes in the backyard or riding their bikes around the block. Go figure. I missed the reunion, but received great reports from my dear friends and my more-than-qualified-stand-in.. Thanks to Jeff and the rest who have posted—it’s nice to show my kids that I had a life before them!!

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Hi Jeff, I love that you are putting this together. What a wonderful resource and a great way to catch up with long lost friends! As for the last 20 years of my life, where do I begin? Well ... here goes:

After high school I moved up to Portland where I got a Bachelor's degree in biology/psychology, and history at Lewis & Clark College. (Steve Scholz and I would meet up for coffee from time to time as he was studying at Reed College just a few miles away. Hi Steve!)

During those years I became the editor of our college's political journal which (I guess) led me to a career in journalism. I spent the next 10 years at NBC affiliates and cable news channels in Portland, Seattle, and LA working my way up as a news writer, assignment editor, and producer.

In 1999 I left TV news and moved to Chicago where I worked as a publicist for clients in the entertainment industry and for authors (scheduling national book tours and news interviews).

In 2003 I landed back in the Northwest as the Media Relations Director for a public policy firm in Seattle ... and finally realized that moving every few years really sucks - so I decided to call Seattle "home" and have stayed here ever since.

I currently work in corporate relations for Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo where I create cause marketing campaigns that support conservation, habitat preservation, and education programs. Basically I help raise money to teach kids and families why its important to protect the environment and endangered species. It's a very rewarding job and I'm really lucky to be able to do something I love!

I've also become very involved with the Northwest Parkinson's Foundation. It's a wonderful organization that provides information, support, and resources for people with Parkinson's and their families. My dad was diagnosed with the disease about 10 years ago so I started volunteering for the group when I moved to Seattle. My involvement has grown since then and I joined the group's board of directors earlier this year.

When I'm not working I love hiking with my friends and our dogs, traveling, hunting for antiques, reading, and keeping up on politics and current events. I am also a British history nut and would love to get a Master's degree ... but for now that will have to wait.

I hope everyone is doing well and I look forward to seeing more updates!

To keep it short, I am living in Novato... Married with 2 boys (ages 3 and 8). For work, I own an Internet and data wholesale company in Novato. Keeping busy with the kids every weekend, with the Little League and swim team stuff.

Jennifer (Noonan) Horne here....after graduating from UC Santa Cruz in '90 (go Banana Slugs!), I slowing decided to get serious and get a "real" job. I pulled myself off the beach and moved to Los Gatos in '97 where I began my career in Silicon Valley selling software. Yes, I am a sell out and following the dinero...what can I say?? [Well, your yearbook quote was "You can never be too rich or too tan"! -ed.] I met my husband at work (uh-oh, fishing off the company pier), we got married on Maui in '99 and then packed it up and traveled around the world for a year in 2000. We visited 25 countries in all and had the time of our lives. We are now totally addicted! Here is our travel site for those of you fellow travel bugs:

We have one child, Liam who is 2 years old and armed with a passport. He has been on several trips already. We hope to take him to Bali next summer. For those of you who haven't been, it's a MUST! The chill factor is extraordinary.

We now live in San Jose and recently bought a 95 year old Colonial in the historic Hanchett Park/Rose Garden area which we really enjoy.

Jeff, thanks for putting this together. It's great to see such diversity in reading through these updates. John, we would love to check out Romania!

I went to Reed College (with Seth Hansell '86!) and got a BA in Philosophy. I moved to Seattle for a year, then back down to the Bay Area. I worked for a translation company (the tech guy) and got a Master Degree from SFSU. I went on to get a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of New Mexico in 2000. I met Carly, moved to Raleigh, NC, and got married in quick succession in 2000 and 2001. We have two kids, Sophia Elizabeth (4) and William August (3) and another one is due any minute!. (I'll keep you up to date).

I have a tenure track position teaching Philosophy at St. Augustine's College (one of the oldest Historically Black Colleges in the US).

I am still a happy nerd, gaming and blogging, and making my own little geek gulch in Raleigh.My blog.

After finished my masters at UNLV and moved onto coaching three years at SDSU. Then it happened marriage and a baby. The life of a nomad was over. Left coaching full-time. Moved back to Concord area to raise family, went back to the family business of Real Estate. Still coaching but now for fun at Pittsburg High. Go Pirates.........

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Welcome to the Northgate Class of '86 Blog

Greetings! This year most of us will turn 40. We have been out of high school longer than half of our lives. Seems like a good time to reflect on the past. Now that it has been over 25 years since we entered our first year of high school, I thought I would make an attempt to help people reconnect, even if it is just over the web.

It's true, I missed the 20 year reunion, and I looked at the Classmates.com site to see who was on there. I think it is completely lame. So I thought instead people could email me their info and I can post it on this site.

Feel free to send:mini-blurb/biocontact info if you wantphoto (then and now?)

Also: stories, old photos, burning questions, etc.No stalkers!

spinifex67 AT yahoo.com

please put NGHS86 in the subject line, and in the email mention your high school name if it has changed.